What are some common pitfalls that PHP beginners may encounter when trying to create a browser game with email functionality?

One common pitfall for PHP beginners when creating a browser game with email functionality is not properly sanitizing user input, which can leave the application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To solve this issue, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with the database to prevent malicious input. 

// Example of using prepared statements to sanitize user input
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();
```

Another common pitfall is not validating and sanitizing email input before sending emails, which can lead to email injection attacks. To solve this issue, always validate user input using PHP filters and sanitize email addresses before using them in email headers.

```php
// Example of validating and sanitizing email input
$email = filter_var($email, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Send email using the sanitized email address
}

Keywords

PHP browser game email functionality security vulnerabilities SQL injection

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